The present invention concerns a magnetic card reader which consists of a housing with an insertion slot and a magnetic card guide to hold a magnetic card, as well as a reading head positioned above the magnetic card guide, so that the magnetic track of the magnetic card can be read.
The requirements regarding accurate reading of magnetic cards have been increasing steadily, since the quantity of information stored on the magnetic tracks on magnetic cards has been increasing, but this makes accurate guidance of the magnetic card an absolute necessity. However, it is extremely difficult to accurately guide a moving magnetic card past a stationary reading head, because the magnetic cards are often bent or rolled and are also subject to variations in dimensions. In addition, accurate data acquisition by means of the reading head requires a uniform reading rate, which is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve when the cards are inserted by hand.